2026-01-05

Greetings wasianators ♪

I have a confession to make first before anything else happens (O_O)

I used to be a HUGE k-pop stan like… concerningly huge. Omg... typing that out feels so strange but whatever LOL. I`m only bringing this up bcz I accidentally started beef w/ an army on twitter today and it unlocked memories I forgot I even had. So yeah… let`s rewind to 2018 :D

Before I became an actual stan stan I would just listen to k-pop here and there like 내가 제일 잘 나가 by 2NE1 & bang bang bang by bigbang. Nothing too crazy. But then one day in 7th grade my friend showed me the DNA by bts music video in the middle of ELA class and that was it. Brain chemistry instantly altered. Suddenly I was learning vocabulary like bias & bias wrecker and before I knew it ariana grande was no longer running my playlist… red velvet was. I had lightsticks, posters of my idols on my walls, photocards everywhere… the whole nine yards. At my peak I was a proud army, blink, and reveluv. Insane behavior if you ask me.

But then… my passion for this lifestyle started to gradually fade. It was the middle of 2020 and the whole fast-paced "stan life" was no longer for me. I realized I had outgrown it which sounds dramatic but it was actually sort of necessary. Once I stepped back, it felt like a weight was lifted off my shoulders that I didn`t even know I was carrying. I stopped fighting in fanwars (thankfully =_=), took down my posters, and started branching out musically. Pop, reggaeton, sigilkore… you name it. Anything except country or heavy metal (sorry). But don`t get it twisted... I never fully stopped listening to k-pop :)

I still love k-pop but I have to be honest… the quality lately just hasn`t been doing it for me. the music, the new group debuts, all of it. maybe it`s just bc i grew up in a different era of k-pop where the sound was constantly changing and evolving with every era, but nothing feels unique anymore. The music videos feel boring, the choruses are repetitive but not even catchy, and don`t even get me started... where is the DIFFICULT choreography? Why does every song need a random rap break? What happened to the life-changing, earth-shattering bridges?? And why are the album covers giving absolutely nothing? How bland... -_-

Nowadays I just listen to 소녀시대 & red velvet. Their concepts actually speak to me. RV`s seamless era shift from red flavor to peek-a-boo in the SAME year needs to be studied. And 소녀시대 just has that confident, diva-y sparkle that makes every concept unmistakably theirs <3 You can tell both groups take their jobs seriously & actually give it their all on stage. They (would) actually sing on stage, connect w/ fans, and it was a lot of fun all around.

K-pop now just feels like it`s all about streams, numbers, and songs being short enough to go viral on tiktok. And don`t even get me started on the new girl groups; newjeans, hearts2hearts, illit, fifty fifty… if you lined them all up next to each other I genuinely wouldn`t be able to tell the difference. But I do love me some hype boy & apple pie :) And the boy groups… yeah idk what`s happening over there XD

Well anyway... that`s my little rant/lore drop. Maybe it`s just nostalgia talking but I`m not sure. Old k-pop had something special and I`ll continue to stand ten toes down on that!!

Peace~~~